What Is Prop 8?
Not many things anger me, or make me feel more ashamed, than the stance so many take on gay marriage in this country. This issue should not be an issue at all. The institution of marriage is, by so many of us, taken for granted, abused, neglected and far from sacred.
Those of you who oppose gay marriage, and voted 'yes' on Proposition 8, how dare you?!
How dare you vote against something that has no effect on you whatsoever, yet has a profound effect on the homosexual community who only wish to do what you have always been able to. How dare you think you have the right to dictate what another individual can or cannot do; how dare you cast your finger and pronounce what is right or wrong simply because of your bible, your church or your community.
Websites like Protect Marriage.com seem like a farce with their display of the shining, happy faces of the heterosexual (and strikingly similar in their racial origins) couples and their children. No where does it state the 50% divorce rate, the rate of adultery among married couples, the glamorization of quickie marriages and divorces in the media, Hollywood and entertainment.
They spout gay marriage as being a threat to marriage as "we know it." Yet, with the many aforementioned troubles that plague the marriages of heterosexual couples in and out of the public spotlight, one would think that the problems and threats to marriage lies not outside its walls but within them.
Protectmarriage.com states that by voting "yes" on Prop 8 (thereby voting against gay marriage): "It protects our children from being taught in public schools that “same-sex marriage” is the same as traditional marriage, and prevents other consequences to Californians who will be forced to not just be tolerant of gay lifestyles, but face mandatory compliance regardless of their personal beliefs."
When, I ask, did personal beliefs become a public matter, such as banning gay marriage in accordance to their own beliefs? What about my personal beliefs: to live and let live, to let any man or woman enter into an equal and consenting marriage regardless of race, sex or gender?
Our children might be taught that same-sex marriage is the same as "traditional marriage"? So what. I'm more frightened that our future children will be ostracized, demoralized and emotionally tortured if ever they are gay or lesbian. I'm more frightened about sending a child into a world where they will be forced to fit into a tiny little box in order to be accepted not just by their peers, but by society. I'm more frightened about our children growing up in a country so conservative, they may never allow themselves to become who they truly are.
Even the Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines 'Marriage' as:
(1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage same-sex marriage
When will the rest of the country catch up?
This, of course, is not just a matter in California. In 2006 Tennessee faced the very same thing: The Tennessee Amendment 1
What's next America? Will you force us into a singular, organized religion? Will you tell me which jobs I can or cannot have because I am a woman? Or how about because I'm a minority? Why don't we just abolish Roe vs. Wade while we're at it?! Because god knows, you probably don't want us to have a choice either. Do you want to dictate where my future children will go to school? What they become when they grow up? Because you sure as hell want to decide who they can and can't marry.
It astounds me that a politician can leave his wife after she has been disfigured from a car accident, only to marry one month after the divorce, and still be regarded as a "good Christian" by the conservative press, and his "followers." ( READ THIS )
Yet two men or two women, who have nothing but love between them, are denied the simple act of marrying, or even adopting.
It seems that those who stress the importance of Christian values, are so willing to cast the first stone and to so harshly judge; and remember what the bible says about that?
Let us not measure our own faith, our own goodness, by what or who we exclude. Let us not measure our own righteousness, or our morality, by what we deny ourselves or (most importantly) by what we deny others. Instead, we must be examples of acceptance, of tolerance and of unity. The inalienable right of man to pursue happiness should not come with such grim limitations.
posted by The Progressive Daily on You Tube:
Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Proposition 8.
Originally aired 11/10/08
Not many things anger me, or make me feel more ashamed, than the stance so many take on gay marriage in this country. This issue should not be an issue at all. The institution of marriage is, by so many of us, taken for granted, abused, neglected and far from sacred.
Those of you who oppose gay marriage, and voted 'yes' on Proposition 8, how dare you?!
How dare you vote against something that has no effect on you whatsoever, yet has a profound effect on the homosexual community who only wish to do what you have always been able to. How dare you think you have the right to dictate what another individual can or cannot do; how dare you cast your finger and pronounce what is right or wrong simply because of your bible, your church or your community.
Websites like Protect Marriage.com seem like a farce with their display of the shining, happy faces of the heterosexual (and strikingly similar in their racial origins) couples and their children. No where does it state the 50% divorce rate, the rate of adultery among married couples, the glamorization of quickie marriages and divorces in the media, Hollywood and entertainment.
They spout gay marriage as being a threat to marriage as "we know it." Yet, with the many aforementioned troubles that plague the marriages of heterosexual couples in and out of the public spotlight, one would think that the problems and threats to marriage lies not outside its walls but within them.
Protectmarriage.com states that by voting "yes" on Prop 8 (thereby voting against gay marriage): "It protects our children from being taught in public schools that “same-sex marriage” is the same as traditional marriage, and prevents other consequences to Californians who will be forced to not just be tolerant of gay lifestyles, but face mandatory compliance regardless of their personal beliefs."
When, I ask, did personal beliefs become a public matter, such as banning gay marriage in accordance to their own beliefs? What about my personal beliefs: to live and let live, to let any man or woman enter into an equal and consenting marriage regardless of race, sex or gender?
Our children might be taught that same-sex marriage is the same as "traditional marriage"? So what. I'm more frightened that our future children will be ostracized, demoralized and emotionally tortured if ever they are gay or lesbian. I'm more frightened about sending a child into a world where they will be forced to fit into a tiny little box in order to be accepted not just by their peers, but by society. I'm more frightened about our children growing up in a country so conservative, they may never allow themselves to become who they truly are.
Even the Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines 'Marriage' as:
(1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage same-sex marriage
When will the rest of the country catch up?
This, of course, is not just a matter in California. In 2006 Tennessee faced the very same thing: The Tennessee Amendment 1
What's next America? Will you force us into a singular, organized religion? Will you tell me which jobs I can or cannot have because I am a woman? Or how about because I'm a minority? Why don't we just abolish Roe vs. Wade while we're at it?! Because god knows, you probably don't want us to have a choice either. Do you want to dictate where my future children will go to school? What they become when they grow up? Because you sure as hell want to decide who they can and can't marry.
It astounds me that a politician can leave his wife after she has been disfigured from a car accident, only to marry one month after the divorce, and still be regarded as a "good Christian" by the conservative press, and his "followers." ( READ THIS )
Yet two men or two women, who have nothing but love between them, are denied the simple act of marrying, or even adopting.
It seems that those who stress the importance of Christian values, are so willing to cast the first stone and to so harshly judge; and remember what the bible says about that?
Let us not measure our own faith, our own goodness, by what or who we exclude. Let us not measure our own righteousness, or our morality, by what we deny ourselves or (most importantly) by what we deny others. Instead, we must be examples of acceptance, of tolerance and of unity. The inalienable right of man to pursue happiness should not come with such grim limitations.
Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Proposition 8.
Originally aired 11/10/08